The Heretics (2009)

The Heretics uncovers the inside story of a pivotal force in the "second wave" of the Women's Movement. Director Joan Braderman, who followed her dream of becoming a filmmaker to New York City in 1971, where she joined the feminist art collective Heresies at the epicenter of the 1970's art world in lower Manhattan, charts the collective's story for the first time in a feature-length film or video. Unlike more traditional "documentaries," the film is framed with striking new digital motion graphics. Consisting of intimate interviews with former collective members, archival footage from the 1970s, and documents of the Heresies collective, which published HERESIES: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics from 1977 to 1992, The Heretics views the collective in the context of the larger second-wave movement, which was made up of thousands who met in small, private group settings to discuss issues and launch programs and actions relevant to women. The hundreds of Heresies members-now scattered around the globe and working as artists, writers, architects, painters, filmmakers, designers, editors, curators, and teachers-speak intimately about the extraordinary times they shared, challenging the terms of gender and power and re-imagining the lives of generations to come.